Ann Walton in Uptown

A new one to watch
Uptown Magazine


August 16, 2007
Ann Walton's name will be heard more often thanks to debut record
-John Kendle

When she sings, Ann Walton sounds like a world-weary troubadour, not so much enunciating her words as breathlessly slurring them. It's an affecting vocal style and, though I've never seen her perform, I imagine Ann with her eyes closed in reverie, playing her piano and emoting for an unseen listener.

Speaking on the phone, Walton sounds younger than her 28 years - like a young Cyndi Lauper, without the Noo Yawk accent.

A relative newcomer to the local music scene - she only began performing at the likes of Academy Bar & Eatery some 18 months ago - Walton is about to release a debut recording, Top of the Hill, that should bring her attention from across the country.

Yes, the album - which will be officially launched with an Aug. 19 show at the Park Theatre - is indeed that good. Earlier this year the singer/songwriter applied to the NXNE music festival in Toronto and was accepted solely on the basis of her music.

Not bad for a girl who rebelled against classical piano training as a teen and took up playing guitar instead. Walton didn't really touch a keyboard seriously again until she was in her mid-20s and decided to bring one along on a songwriting retreat.

"That's when I fell in love with the piano all over again," she says. "It took some time for me to go out and find my own style, and it turned out that involved me discovering the piano again."

Walton's style is old-tyme and jazz-inflected pop which meanders between spry, upbeat numbers and slower, more mournful reflections. The sound is not surprising, given that she says she and her siblings grew up in a house full of jazz albums owned by her "huge music fan" parents.

Walton's twin brother Chris is a drummer who played on and co-produced the album. Her older sister, Jenn Dupas, played accordion on the recording, which also features the guitar of Matt Foster and the upright bass of Gilles Fournier.

Ann says making an album is something she would never have considered even a couple of years ago.

"It was really my family and my closest friends who pushed me into going into the studio and putting something down," she says. "People who know me would say I'm very shy and introverted but after the second time I performed for people I realized that I was doing something that was so exciting to me.

"Until then I never felt that I'd feel comfortable telling people about myself."